Farewell to Zach

One of my favorite Indiana boys has finished his schooling here and will be on his way to Nigeria as soon as he can raise the funds he needs. He plans to spend three years surveying languages in Nigeria, determining where Bible translation projects are needed.

After cheesecake and Zach's speech, they played spoons. If you want to see this game in action, click here.

2 Out of 3 Ain't Bad

Praise the Lord with us! Today Rachel signed a contract for a job and got a car!

She will be teaching 2nd grade at Christway Academy, a Christian school only a few miles from our house. Her job doesn't really start until August, but she is already making plans for bulletin boards, telling me she "needs" to go shopping to buy classroom supplies, and wondering out loud about all the things teachers have to deal with. And in spite of currently being certified as a teacher in both Oklahoma and Texas, she now has to secure yet another certification, this one for Christian schools.

The car is an older model Subaru, and for being as old as it is, it only has 80,000 miles. We haven't actually bought it yet; we're test driving it over the weekend and will decide by Monday. But Rachel drove it home and seems to like it pretty well.

Thank God with us for his blessings to Rachel.

I'm Dyeing

As a good missionary, I cannot in good conscience, throw a perfectly good pair of Gary's pants away, just because he doesn't like the color. So I'm trying my hand at changing them from almost white to dark brown. I'll just hang them up in his closet and when he gets home from down under, he won't even notice that they aren't white anymore.

On My Knees

Last Thursday at my Bible study we sang this song, and we sang it again yesterday at church. It is a simple, quiet song, but has a powerful message. I was especially caught by the words of verse 3--sometimes we do find ourselves in a sadness that is not of our own choice, and there really is nothing to do about it except turn to our Lord.

When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees
When waves of doubt crash over me
I need to get on my knees

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand
When life feels like sinking sand
I need to reach for Your hand

In Your hand I find refuge
In Your hand I find grace
In Your hand I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't have strength to stand
I need to reach for Your hand

When life leaves me with no choice
I must listen for Your voice
When lies confuse me with their noise
I must listen for Your voice

In Your voice I find refuge
In Your voice I find grace
In Your voice I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When life leaves me with no choice
I will listen for Your voice

On my knees I find refuge
On my knees I find grace
On my knees I can feel You
Like we're meeting face to face
When I don't know what I need
I need to get on my knees

And just to prove how much I like this song, and spurred on by my efforts of yesterday, I purchased this song for download for $.88. Only after doing so did I learn that I'm not able to import it into iTunes. It can only be played by Windows Media Player.

Free Music Downloads

I suppose all my young readers will roll their eyes and say, "duh," but I'm just now learning about all the nice free music one can find on the internet. A while ago, my daughter showed me iTunes software and how to "rip" my small collection of CDs. Recently I found that if you find a place that says "free download" and click on it, the song goes straight to iTunes. Cool.

Today I found a bunch of songs by a group called PBC & Onora. I couldn't find any biographical info about them, but I like their Celtic sound, pure and simple, strong female voices.

And if you want to hear some less-beautiful, yet still entertaining, music--then click over to Linda's Family News and see the video from today's church hoedown. Yee-Ha!

Another Online Friend IRL

It was fun today to meet another person from an online forum I used to be a part of. He joined us for lunch at my very favorite place to eat, Ton's Mongolian BBQ. We talked him into entertaining us with a mini concert before he hit the road for DC.

Prayer Request

Rachel was awakened this morning by a phone call from a principal of a local Christian school asking her to fill out an application for a position that had just opened up. Just yesterday Rachel had called this school and was told it would be a month before they knew if there would be any openings. So at the moment Rachel is busy filling out a lengthy application which includes an essay on "What is your philosophy of Christian Education?" Lucky for her, she had this very same essay as a question in one of her Ed classes at college, and she was easily able to find it on her computer. So that will give her a good start.

Please pray for her and this application--she really needs a job, and this particular school is within easy driving distance.

Other Rachel news: Today she paid yet another fee to the State of Texas to apply for her Standard Teaching Certificate since she passed the two required exams. Also, we've about given up on the hope that she would find a used Toyota Echo within our price range, so now we're back to looking at other small cars. A car-dealer friend is looking for us, and said he has a small Subaru for her to try out early next week.

Last night Rachel attended the singles' Bible study from church and came home overwhelmed with stories of difficulties various ones were undergoing. With a laugh she summed up her own troubles: no car, no job, no boyfriend. Wouldn't it be a blessing for Rachel to get a car and a job soon so she could be happy about at least two out of three??

Thirsty White Kitty

Warning: if you have dial-up, it might take forever to download this video even though it is only 45 seconds long.

I got bored the other day and decided to look on my new computer and see if it included any video editing software. I found something called Movie Maker so I tried it out. (No, I don't think I'll quit my day job :-)

Click on the triangle.

Ouch!

Yesterday I cut my finger pretty deep. I was trying to split some speaker wire and I was using a paring knife in a stupid way. I stopped the bleeding with a dish cloth, then made a butterfly closure with duct tape, added a bandaid, then wrapped the whole finger in a piece of tee shirt. For punishment for my folly, I've had to endure three things:

1. Pain.
2. Having to explain the story to my coworkers.
3. Having my medical student son ask me, "Mom, have you been reading Where There Is No Doctor again?

Rainy Sunday

I had my camera with me at church today, so the folks in the back seat took these photos while I was trying to drive. We've had such a drought for such a long time, but it looks like the rains this weekend will start to make a dent in that lack. As Rachel said, this is a good day to stay inside and cuddle up with a book in bed. (Except how can I do that when there are so many basketball games on TV in my bedroom?)

It Is Not Good For Man To Be Alone

...even at this age.

Today we attended a wedding of two 70+ year olds, a first marriage for her. I was going to make jokes about how he tried to keep it "just friends," or about how they have a website just like all the young couples these days, or about the special wheelchair section at their large wedding venue. Or I was even thinking to mention how someone asked me, "At that age can they, um,...well,...um, enjoy themselves?" :-)

But I won't. I'll just say that all weddings make me cry.

March Madness -- Overheard

Those guys just can't pass, can they?

Why isn't my school playing in this tournament?


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I've had two blogs for quite a while, this one and one called Linda's Family News. Often the second one has been a subset of this one, but I'm thinking to change that. I'm going to try putting less personal news in this blog and put it instead in Linda's Family News. If any readers of The Empty Nest want to keep up with our family news, just click on the link I've put in the right column.

And how do you like the new counter I installed with the cool world map? I stole the idea from someone else's blog. It is fun to see dots where all my friends and family live.

Red-winged Blackbird, female

I stole this image from the internet, but there were nine of these on my feeder last weekend. I searched the bird book and decided it must be a female red-winged blackbird, but why so many of them with no males? After further research I learned that juvenile birds look like females and also that the birds segregate such that the juveniles and females forage together and the males forage together, explaining why they all looked like females on the feeder.

Dead Roses

A hope for new growth via replanting.

Goodbye, ZFT

Due to reasons I won't go into here, I'm leaving an online community that I've participated in for over two years, Zeal For Truth. I've enjoyed my time there, and I think I've made a few friends, most of whom are young enough to be my kids. I think of them as my nieces and nephews, and they call me Aunt Linda. In fact, the screen name I used there actually means "your mother/maternal aunt."

Many times over the two years I've felt led to pray for ZFT members. Maybe they've prayed for me from time to time too, and I appreciate that. The highlight of my time at ZFT wasn't an online event at all. It was attending IRL the wedding of a couple who met each other there. It was cool to meet in person the people I had only formed online ideas about.

If any ZFTers read this blog, please know that I'm not mad at anyone there. It is just time for me to move on.

I'm blocking public comments to this blog, but as usual, if anyone has anything to say to me about this post, I can be reached at thainamu at gmail.com

Happy Birthday, David!

David came home for the weekend so we could celebrate with him. We took him to Ton's and we took him to Beauty and the Beast and made cheesecake and Italian Cream Cake.

Rachel's Week

..ended better than it began. On Tuesday she had a job interview that she felt went well, but she hasn't heard anything yet. Wednesday through Friday she had full days of teaching these four kids whose parents were attending a conference. I was truely amazed at how well she organized all the activities, and how much the kids seemed to enjoy it.



14-year old Jeremy was a big help too.


Today she took them on a nature walk.

Then made puzzles from a group photo.


Then made empanadas.


Then after she dragged herself home she looked up on the internet and found out that she had passed the last Texas teacher test--yay! I had been saving this gift for her till she passed--a set of stamps about children's books and the books to go with the stamps.

Dr. Simons

All the academics at SIL are trying to get their professional websites updated. The webmistress was complaining that Gary's didn't have a photo, and Gary was complaining that all the photos we did have looked bad. So at lunch I told him to stop complaining and go put a shirt and tie on and we'd make our own "professional" photo. It isn't all that great, but it is the best out of the 20 we took. Ain't monopoly film great??

I'm thinking it might be time to shave the top of his head. What do you think?

A Thousand Pieces

Rachel's boyfriend broke up with her last night. No fight, just a quiet, "this isn't working and I don't think it ever will." He was kind enough to talk with me about it too, which I know wasn't easy for him, and which I appreciate.

I had suspected this might happen, so I wasn't exactly surprised. I'm not angry, but I am sad. I will continue to pray that God will bring the right woman to him at the right time--the same thing I've been praying for three and a half years.

Needless to say, Rachel's heart is broken. She had been convinced for some time that he was the one she would marry. Besides her emotions, she will have two other things to deal with. First, it will be hard for her to face the fact that she thought she heard God's voice in wanting to marry him, but apparently she didn't. Something like that could shake one's faith.

Second, in some ways the worst part of this for Rachel will be losing her best friend, because he was that as well as her boyfriend. But they have tried the "let's just be friends" route in the past without much success, so I have asked them not to do that again. I fear they will just find themselves back in the same situation if they spend time together as friends: attracted to each other, but he unwilling to marry her. I don't want her to go on that emotional roller coaster again, so I've asked him not to see her again unless he wants to marry her.

Even so, they will need to come to some kind of understanding about their lost relationship, and they will need God's grace and wisdom as they move on with their lives.

If I were allowed to arrange marriages, I would have arranged for him to marry Rachel. I always thought the two of them fit together pretty well (though not perfectly). And--no offense to either one of them--they are both somewhat odd ducks who seemed to be able to accept the other's eccentricies.

The only negative thing I have to say about his treatment of Rachel comes from the fact that, indeed, he never loved her: he was generous with her in all ways except with his time. It was sad to me to see him doling out his time to her in measured drops, when I felt she deserved to be flooded. I guess that is how he will one day know he has found the right girl--he will want to always be with her.

Let me end by saying that I appreciate the kind and gentle way he always treated Rachel, even if he never loved her.

I'm blocking public comments, but you can email me at thainamu at gmail.com if you have anything to say.

www.pinkunderwear.com

We're not quite sure why Gary got these for his birthday. We'll have to ask his mom. :-)

I spent some time this past weekend adding two new sets of photos to my website--one of Gary's recent trip to Bremen, Germany and the other of David's trip to Ethiopia last Christmas. Unfortunately, the space I am allotted for my website on Comcast is full, so every time I want to add new photos, I have to take off some of the older ones, which is a bummer. I also updated a few things on David's page. I need to update several other things.

Rachel has a 3-day job this week taking care of 4 kids whose parents are at the Center for a conference. She is busy, busy preparing lesson plans, craft projects, and a fun nature hike. The pay is pretty good, but it is taking her hours of preparation ahead of time, so that makes up for it. Tomorrow she will volunteer at the Center childcare too, then lead the lesson on James at her singles' group, so she has lots to do this week. We are still praying for her to find a real job.